Spotify doesn’t need an introduction. Almost everyone knows about it, since it has already turned into one of the main music streaming services not only in the UK, but also around the globe. It basically allows you play it either through your computer or your mobile phone. Many companies have already partnered with them, making them a greater music service. One of the companies who partnered with them includes Vodafone.

Two Versions

Spotify comes in two different tastes, the free version, and the Premium version. The free version, gives you access to everything, but you’ll have to be connected to a strong and continuous internet connection. It also has constant advertisements in the middle of the music playlists and shuffle play that doesn’t allow you to choose your own music in a certain playlist.

On the other hand, the premium version gives you an online access and a way to download all your music, with no advertisements or shuffle play. It also features better sound quality. It generally costs £9.99 a month.

Last 2014, Vodafone has announced its partnership with the Swedish music service known as Spotify by providing premium subscriptions for their Red plans subscribers. Details about the brand partnership was limited, but they telecommunication company promised their costumers of access to millions of music tracks through Spotify. But one thing is clear, this in an attempt by the company to encourage customers to subscribe to their services.

During the day of its announcement, they said new subscribers to any of their postpaid 12 or 24-month Vodafone Red plans will get a totally free Spotify premium access, a service that originally charge their users with £ 8 per month.

“Spotify partnering with companies like Vodafone increases revenue streams to the music industry, and so provides benefits for fans and artists alike,” said Michael Abbattista, the Global Head of Telcom/ISP Partnerships at Spotify.

The duration of the subscription will depend on the plan you are going to choose. For Australian users, the $70 Red plan will give you a Spotify Premium access equivalent to 6 months. For the $80 Red plan, you will enjoy 12 months of free premium subscription to Spotify. Last but not the least, the $100 Red plan will guarantee you 24 months of Spotify subscription. If you want to know more about Spotify prices, contact Vodafone customer service directly.

When you use Spotify, your usage will not be metered. Therefore, using the music service will still be charged to your monthly data limit. However, Vodafone also gives their customers unlimited data for the 1st two months of the 12 and 24-month plan subscriptions. As a guide, Vodafone says that streaming an hour of music a day at normal to high quality (96kbps-160kbps) would see you go through 1.5 to 2GB of data per month.

This subscription offer is still available to new customers from today, and to “existing customers who upgrade or rate plan change to a Vodafone Red plan over 12 or 24 months, excluding any month to month SIM only plan”.

To activate access to Spotify, they’ll be giving you a link to activate it through a text message or through their website: http://www.vodafone.co.uk/.

Promoting a music band isn’t easy, especially if your group has little to no budget. Besides from promoting your band through social media and letting people hear your music, here are some tips and tricks on how to effectively promote your improving music band.

Move your way up by collaborating with other music bands

Even though other musicians would disagree, associating with other music bands is a great way of promoting yourself. Start with bands that has a slightly a bigger fan base than you and then you can start going up through a ladder method. This is not only a good way to get in front of their audience, but also being on the same level of them. When they think your music is great, they’ll want to work with you and you’ll be one of those little bands who practice in their dad’s garage that transformed into a group everyone wants to be involved with.

Move your way up with media outlets

Before you approach a big website, television channel or radio station, you should prove your worth first before rushing into the top. Like earlier, you should start in smaller platforms and websites and then build your way towards the top. When you do this, you should network with new people along your music journey. This is a great way to find bigger opportunities for you and your music band.
Practicing your own lyrics is good, but mastering your own music is better. Stop practicing in your own garage, go out there, be an entertainer and show them what you’ve got. But before that, you should improve your own stage presence. You should ask yourself, will they remember our song? Will they remember the people in our band? Did you outshine the other performances during that night?
The best way to master it is by looking at videos of live acts on YouTube that share the same music genre with your band. Notice their stances, how they interact with the people watching. See if it works and if you can apply to your own band.

Make a clear schedule for your social updates

There’s an easy way to promote your band on social networks and that is by making a schedule of your social updates. This may be impossible when interacting with the fans, you can still schedule updates for the latest content and conversation starters. An example of a good gig schedule update goes like this:
“Just arrived at the venue and we’re excited to perform! Any of you here? If so, then you should come here, say hello and wish me good luck!”

You can also update an announcement after your gig performance:
“The show tonight went surprisingly well, I can’t wait to share videos and photos who weren’t able to come! I’ll upload them as soon as impossible tomorrow morning. “
This is a great way to encourage communication between your band and your fans. As long as you have your smartphone with you and good internet connection (Vodafone customer service will help you with that), you will be able to post updates as quick as possible and stay in touch with your fans.

When it comes to rock, it’s not all about genres and their spawn; a good rocker knows that to know rock and truly love it, it’s important to look at its roots. Rock music is a type of music that makes use of vocal melody and the accompaniment of instruments like the guitar, the bass guitar, drums and keyboard instruments and synthesizers. Having roots stretching back to the 1950s, rock music is an offshoot of the Blues. Artists with profound effects on rock include Elvis and Fats Domino. For a few years, the rock ‘n’ roll movement began to slow down, but was once again brought alive by revolutionary bands like The Beatles and the The Rolling Stones.

The Kinks and the Who followed with their mod-style and by the end of the decade, more and more bands began sprouting, bringing about the British Invasion which was brought to height by “Beatlemania.” The late 60s and the early 70s brought about a new movement in rock music, several new movements in fact. Experimentation with different musical forms, song types and instruments brought about the psychedelic and progressive rock movement. Popular bands like Pink Floyd, Jethro Thull, Pavlov’s Dog and the Nice experimented with the use of orchestral instruments to enrich their sound. Folk rockers like Bob Dylan and The Byrds took their claim to fame by writing about relevant issues of their time. The noted difference here is the use of acoustic instruments and traditional songs. Soft rock hits from the Partridge Family and Bread were part of the short-lived “bubble gum pop” era. Heavy metal made its presence known in the late 70s with bands like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath playing heavily amplified, guitar-driven blues rock.

Bands like Queen, AC/DC, Van Halen, Aerosmith and Kiss were among the cult-followed bands. The Sex Pistols, the Ramones, the Clash and the Dead Kennedys battled with disco hits bringing their no-frills just pure rock ‘n’ roll music with the Punk movement. Post-punk bands like U2 and Joy Division were part of the bands that played from the outgrowth of punk. In the 80s, New Wave, Glam and Alternative Rock bands began sprouting out with their diverse sounds, debauched lifestyles and unbelievable popularity. Top bands and key players of this movement includes Guns N’ Roses, Queen and the Cure.

By the early 90s, bands like the Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Hole pioneered the Grunge sound with a raw feel and distorted guitars. Along with this came the Britpop movement with Oasis, The Verve, Radiohead and Blur creating a sound similar to 80s British Rock underground acts. Indie Rock and Stoner rock was also part of this era of diversified sound. These days, a revival of post-punk and garage rock joins emo as the top rock sounds that is played by various radio stations. Popular bands include The White Stripes, The Strokes, and Panic! At the Disco, Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance.

In this review of Daft Punk’s latest hit single, Get Lucky, we are going to cover a variety of factors, including mood, tempo, lyrics, and other musical aspects that any decent song should be comprised of. We will also cover a bit of where Daft Punk got their inspiration for their hit single, Get Lucky, which has turned out to be a huge success for them.

The song starts out with a groovy beat that feels like you could be looking right into an electronic picture frame, one that has a plethora of cool, relaxing colors. In terms of mood, you can almost feel like you are rocking out at a dance club, yet maintaining an easy going, upbeat groove at the same time. It has a medium slow tempo, which is slow enough for anyone to get moving along with the beat, but still fast paced enough for experienced dancers to have a lot of fun getting into.
The lyrics are simple, and repetitive enough to catch on quickly so you can sing along without them getting old, or feeling like someone is beating you over the head with lyrics that just won’t stop repeating. We all know how it feels when a song starts playing on the radio that everyone has heard a thousand times and everyone is sick of. In that respect, you can almost see a picture forming in your mind while listening to Get Lucky, and based on what you are hearing it would probably look good as a set of electronic picture frames!

As for inspiration, Daft Punk is known for setting new records and standards in their genre, so they really don’t need much of a story to explain why Get Lucky is such a hit. That said, I promised to share a bit about their sources of inspiration when coming up with new ideas, songs and albums. You might not be surprised to hear they often draw inspiration from the blurry lines between robots and humans, but interestingly enough, the band has been feeling a pull toward older methods and techniques of creating sounds, opting to turn from traditional sample based recording and, as the Daft Punk crew said themselves, “We want to do what we have done in the past with samples and machines, but with people.”
If that’s not inspiration enough for you, remember this; if you can fit an image of Daft Punk’s latest hit single into an electronic picture frame, you can do anything!